Getting a read on Washington

MOUNT VERNON, Va. George Washington's majestic estate overlooking the Potomac River now has an added attraction: a state-of-the-art presidential library.

The opening Friday of the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington celebrated the father of our country with a crowd that included both U.S. senators from Virginia, the governor and a keynote by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough.

The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, a private group that has owned and operated the estate since 1858, raised $106 million in private funds for the library.

Washington was largely self-taught, eventually mastering the art of surveying, his profession before joining the military. As restive colonists rose up against the British, Washington became the commander of the Continental Army and, after he led the revolutionary forces to victory, a national hero.

The new library owns 62 titles, or 103 volumes, of Washington's original 1,200 titles, as well as duplicates of books that are known to have been in his collection.

They are all stored in a secure oval room that is temperature- and light-protected. His books can only be handled by library staff.

Among the titles: “The Iliad” by Homer and “The Federalist” by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay.